J.J. Abrams Scores Again?

…Except that we foresee years of litigation on this particular idea because, exciting as it is (and we think it is) we know of at least one literary estate and one literary figure who’ve already done wonderful versions of the same thing:

Fringe‘s J.J. Abrams and J.H. Wyman Reunite for Robot Cop Drama – by Robyn Ross (TVGuide.Com)

J.J. Abrams will reunite with his Fringe producer J.H. Wyman on an upcoming project for Fox, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The upcoming pilot is a futuristic cop drama set in a not-so-distant future when Los Angeles police officers are partnered up with human-like androids. Wyman will write the script and executive produce along with Abrams and Bryan Burk.

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Abrams and Wyman are currently wrapping up their final season of Fringe, while Abrams is launching his newest series, NBC’s Revolution, this fall.

Our recollection – augmented by LB’s still strong memory – is that this is the basic premise of Isaac Asimov’s two best (in our opinion) novels, Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun, each set in the  I, Robot universe and about a crime being solved by a human police detective and his robot partner. And LB recalls that Harlan Ellison had a similar project, either as a short story or a TV deal, way back in the century that came before this one. Attorneys, start your engines!

3 thoughts on “J.J. Abrams Scores Again?”

  1. Now, this is really obscure, but… wasn’t there a show in the 70s kind of like this? A comedy, I think (intentional or not). With… Ernest Borgnine?

    Or was it a dream?

  2. Found it (on some TV site I’d never heard of):
    Future Cop’ (1976-1977)
    Not every 1970s science fiction TV show turned out to be a cult classic. This very odd – and short-lived – series starred Borgnine and John Amos as veteran patrol officers who are assigned to work with a life-like robot. The “twist” was that Borgine’s character Officer Joe Cleaver knew the new Officer Haven was a robot, John Amos’ Officer Bill Bundy did not. Weirdly enough, despite the Sci Fi concept, the trio ended up just battling the garden-variety mobsters and drug dealers instead of some scary criminal masterminds. Which made the whole reason for having a robot police officer a bit pointless.

    1. I definitely remember that series. In fact, I also remember Harlan Ellison suing about it. Usually, I hate when history repeats itself, but I’m thinking that maybe this time, if HE springs into action, it’ll be fun.

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